Is there a specific dua (supplication) to say if you want to overcome addiction? The answer, and Allah Knows best, is no. So what now? Do not be disappointed. There are many duas that we can say that will help us to overcome our urges, whether it is drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex or otherwise. The point is, turning to Allah any how He is pleased with, any where will help us in recovery. The Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, said “Dua is the weapon of the believer” because it helps us fight our desires and the whispers of shaytan. It is what gives us both defence and strength in this world. Dua is a direct conversation between ourselves and our Creator, Allah. By talking to Allah, we take Him as our Counsel, our Wali and even our intimate Friend. He is our Companion in this life and the next. The Prophet, pbuh, also said;

“Dua is the core of worship”

There are some duas that are particularly relevant if we want Allah to help us give up on sin and addiction. When it comes to giving up on the things that Allah is displeased with we need to speak from the source of the sin – the heart. Through addiction, our hearts become corrupted which often means speaking from the heart can often be difficult. We find it hard to be honest with ourselves and others yet we know that Allah knows our hearts better than we do. Sometimes we can feel quite guilty and this in itself can stop the heart from turning back to Allah. He Sees and Hears all the things we do. He sees our struggle and how much we fight our cravings some days and give up on others. Allah loves us even more when it is harder to give something up for His Sake yet we try and try again anyway. In some ways the one who sins and struggles to give it up, is better than the one who never sinned at all.

Here are three duas among many that may help us become more obedient to Allah inshaAllah and stop obeying our desires and shaytan.

1) Oh Turner of Hearts

One of the companions, Shihr said : ‘I said to Umm Salamah : ‘O Mother of the Believers, what is the duaa’ which the Prophet (sallahAllaahu alayhi wasallam) would supplicate the most while in your presence? ’

So she said : ‘The frequent supplication of his was :

يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِى عَلَى دِينِكَ

“O, Turner of the hearts, turn my heart towards Your deen.”

The Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, was the most free from sin amongst all the human beings to have ever lived, yet he made this dua frequently. This is such a beautiful and powerful dua, for us as addicts in recovery to make.

The arabic word for heart is ‘Qalb’, which literally means ‘turn’. The state of the heart is that it is constantly turning – either towards Allah or away from Allah. As addicts we know this feeling so well. We feel as though we are in a constant state of turning. Our cravings swing us this way and that. Our heart fights itself constantly as our desires crave both the good and the bad at the same time.

By saying this dua we are asking Allahs help to keep the heart reaching out to Him and whenever it begins to turn towards our addiction we ask Allah to turn the heart back to Him and the things that He loves.

Allah also tells us in Surah Ahzab, 33:4 of The Qur’an;

“Allâh has not made for any man two hearts inside his body…”meaning that He has only given us one heart and that one heart can only be attached to one thing at any time. Our hearts are either attached to Allah or they are attached to some one or something else, i.e drugs. It is impossible to be attached to Allah along with something else. However, if we attach our hearts to Allah then everything else falls in place. We love for the sake of Allah and we hate for the sake of Allah.

This amazing short dua is one we can learn and memorise easily and in recovery we must recite it as often as we can inshaAllah.

2) The Dua of Yunus, alayhis Salam

Prophet Yunus made a mistake, going against the order of Allah and leaving his people. As a result of his disobedience Yunus was punished when Allah caused the fish to swallow him. Yunus found himself in a very dark place – three levels of darkness – the darkness of the night, the darkness of the sea and the darkness of the belly of the fish. As addicts, we have made mistakes that have taken us to a place of darkness and anguish. If we do not find a way out of this dark hole we can often wallow in the pits of despair. By turning to Allah, admitting our mistake and asking Him to help we can find ourselves back in the light of Allah again. This is the dua that Yunus made;

It was on account of this dua that the angels heard Yunus calling and they called to Allah to answer him. Allah is Most Merciful and Forgives all sins. He forgave Yunus for his mistake and He guarantees us that He will Forgive us too, in many places in The Qur’an. Allah tells us over and over again how Merciful and Forgiving He is, so much so that he has made it fardh on Himself that He Forgives the one who turns to Him in repentance and who does good deeds thereafter;

So let us take the example of the beloved Prophet Yunus, and turn back to Allah in repentance in the knowledge that Allah will definitely forgive us. We have hope in His Mercy and Kindness.

3) Seeking refuge in Allah from the whispers of shaytan

As addicts, we not only need to fight our own desires and cravings but we have an external force to contend with too. Shaytan whispers to our desires, igniting our cravings. He wants to take us away from Allah and he knows all the things that each of us desire that will lead us away. But we must always remember that Shaytan’s whispers are merely invitations and suggestions and it is up to us to deny them. Allah tells us what Shaytan will say on the Day of Judgement;

“And Shaitan (Satan) will say when the matter has been decided: ‘Verily, Allah promised you a promise of truth. And I too promised you, but I betrayed you. I had no authority over you except that I called you, and you responded to me. So blame me not, but blame yourselves. I cannot help you, nor can you help me…’” (Quran, Ibraaheem: 22).

Recovery is about taking responsibility. We must not blame the shaytan for taking us away from The Straight Path. Rather we must find the tools in this life to protect ourselves with starting with making dua to Allah to help us against our enemy.

This simple dua, as soon as the thoughts of sin enters our mind, can help us stop in our tracks and give up what shaitan and our desires are calling to. Allah will help us with our cravings if we continue to recite this and the above duas when we are feeling like indulging in our addiction.

These are just three of the many duas available for us to use. There are many others in the hadith and Quran. Or we can just speak straight our hearts in our own words. Allah hears all duas and He responds to every one when we call upon Him. If we want to stop using drugs or engaging in other addictive behaviours making dua to Allah with sincerity needs to be constant, at the beginning and throughout our lives, until death. Dua is the direct conversation between ourselves and Allah. Through our dua Allah will lead us to other good deeds. If we want to become better Muslims, we must ask Allah for help and protection. He will always give it. He loves it when we ask of Him. Asking of Allah increases our bond with Him. We have had a relationship with our addiction for too long. Now it is time to strengthen our relationship with our Lord. Through this relationship we will begin to hate anything that He hates and love all that He loves. Dua will take us to this place inshaAllah. May Allah make it easy.

Please remember that dua on its own is not enough. We must strive towards engaging in lots of good deeds too. Recovery is about shaping new routines and structures. We must do our 5 daily prayers and try to do as many good deeds as we can to fill our days and nights. Dua and action together makes a good recovery programme.

If ever any one of you has experienced severe or prolonged anxiety you will know how difficult it can make your every day living. That feeling when your chest feels tight or heavy, the heart feels like a solid rock, breathing can feel painful and the stomach churns constantly. We may have to take more trips to the toilet than normal and may even experience shaking or trembling or tearfulness. Things that we could normally do easily, like driving, trips to the shops, talking to strangers etc can feel overwhelming and frightening. If we do not treat this feeling of anxiety it becomes heightened and panic attacks can ensue. This has a ripple effect where we become more and more fearful and the anxiety increases. Throw an addiction problem into this mix and all this becomes much bigger and more scary and is often something that leads to relapse as the person seeks a way to just make that feeling go away, a feeling that we often associate or misinterpret as a craving. Carers of addicts also experience high levels of anxiety as they live in fear of the next relapse or become exposed to oppressive and unacceptable behaviour from the active addict in their lives. Anxiety begins to effect the whole family.

Allah tells us in the Qur’an about the anxiety that Musa (Moses) experienced when he was tasked with going back to Egypt to call the tyrant leader, Firaun, to worship Allah and set free the Children of Israel, who he was oppressing through slavery. Musa (as) became afraid and anxious. For a fleeting moment he doubted his abilities, his chest tightened and he lost hope in carrying out this task. He was overwhelmed. Allah tells us about his duah;

“Lord! Expand my chest for me, and ease my task for me and And loosen the knot from my tongue that they understand my speech.”

Musa asked for Allah to expand his chest, meaning that he felt as though his chest was tight and constricted, thus displaying the feeling of anxiety. He felt overwhelmed with his task, worried that he would find it hard so he asked Allah to make things easy for him. And lastly, his inadequacies seemed bigger to him, making him worried. He was afraid that the people he was going to would not understand him, due to a slight speech impediment, and therefore he asked Allah to remove this flaw.

There are so many lessons to be learned from this duah of Musa (as). This verse from the Qur’an teaches us that it is Allah who has the ability to remove our anxiety and make things easy for us when it all seems so difficult and frightening. It is Allah that can make things easy. The Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, taught us another beautiful prayer;

اللّهُـمَّ لا سَـهْلَ إِلاّ ما جَعَلـتَهُ سَهـلاً، وَأَنْتَ تَجْـعَلُ الْحَـزَنَ إِذا شِـئْتَ سَهـْلاً “O Allah, there is no ease except in that which You have made easy, and You make the difficulty, if You wish, easy.”

Knowing that a great prophet like Musa experienced anxiety should help us to be easy on ourselves. Some people may say to us “Muslims should not feel anxious when they have Allah” are grossly mistaken. We are but human beings, and most of us will experience anxiousness at one time in our life. When we get anxious, this is the time to remember that Allah is the One who can pull us together and help us begin to rely and depend on Him.

Another example of panic and anxiety in the Qur’an, is that of Musa’s mother when she placed her little baby in the river;

“And the heart of the mother of Musa became empty. She was very near to disclose her secret, had We not tied up her heart , so that she might remain as one of the believers”(28:10)

This Verse is so beautiful. This is a Verse of Allah that needs to give us hope when our heart is feeling broken and we experience trauma or emotional pain. Allah describes her heart as being completely emptied out. Anyone who has experienced anxiety will know that the heart empties out of all other matters except that one thing we are worried about. Allah tells us here that He intervened to strengthen her heart. He ‘tied up’ the broken pieces of her heart and held them together for her in order to get her through this test and keep her faith in tact. Therefore we must know that it is Allah who ties back the heart together when we are feeling as though we are in tatters and falling apart, broken into pieces.

So it is a very natural thing to panic and feel worried and anxious from time to time but the solution to prevent it and stop it lies in turning to Allah and trusting Him to help us.

5 Steps To Overcome Anxiety

1) Make duah, call upon Allah for help

Use the duahs mentioned above as they are from the Qur’an and sunnah and also make duah from your own heart in your own language, knowing that Allah will help you. Musa called on Allah to expand his chest when it felt tight and He knew Allah could do that.

2) Breathe!

One of the main reasons we may have a panic attack, or experience chest pains is because we are not breathing properly. When we are nervous or anxious we tend to take shorter breaths or even hold our breaths without even realising we are doing this. If you watch a sleeping baby, you will see that it is there bellies that rise and fall as they breathe. Babies know how to breathe and we forget. If we take a deep breath it is often our chests that rise. However, our oxygen receptors are actually in the diaphram, close to the stomach. When you take deep breaths try to ensure that it is your belly that is rising and not your chest. If we do not breathe from here, the receptors send a message to the brain saying “we are not getting enough oxygen here!” thus sending the person into a state of panic and they may begin to hyperventilate. For more breathing tips please click here

3) Try to remove the cause of your anxiety and lighten your load

If you are experiencing prolonged anxiety, you need to consider removing that cause from your life if it is possible. Seek help from others to try to make things easier for you. Call on family or friends to help you ease your task. Musa (as) knew that he would struggle to complete the task that Allah wanted him to do so Musa asked Allah to make his brother Haroon his companion and help him, and so Allah made Haroon a prophet too and granted Musa’s request. No more soldiering on alone! Time to get some help!

4) Exercise

The scientific cause of anxiety is the release of too much adrenaline. The brain has gone into an emergency state and realises this chemical so that the person can either fight or flee, known as “fight or flight” syndrome. The body is not designed to constantly live in this state. Excess adrenaline can be burnt through exercise. If you are not ready to hit the gym yet, then a pleasant walk in a local park can do wonders. It is also very spiritual to come back to nature and sit under a tree for a while and breathe in fresh air. Cardiovascular exercise is recommended for 20 minutes at least three times a week, and this may include a brisk walk and will help lift the mood.

5) Positive self-talk

It is easy to fall prey to the whispers of Shaitan, who want us to feel weak and lose self belief. Musa (as) became fearful of his speech problem, but he called on Allah to fix it. Sometimes, Shaitan can make our flaws and weakness seem much bigger than they actually are. Allah tells us in the Quran it is Shaitan that causes us to be fearful (3:175), therefore seek refuge in Allah from his whispering several times per day. We must stop focusing on the things we struggle with, and start strengthening the things we do well.

May Allah help us to overcome our anxieties and move forward to complete our tasks and get through our days and nights without fear. May Allah help us to stay focused on trusting Allah to keep helping us and guiding us. May we remember that Allah will smooth out our roads so long as we keep turning to Him and may Allah keep us away from all those things that He is displeased with and guide us to those actions that earn His Pleasure. Ameen!

The frequent supplication of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him

By Lynne Ali-Northcott

I am an white, English sister, married to a Pakistani guy I met at uni. Let’s call him Faz. Drugs brought us together. Faz was my drug dealer at first, supplying me and my friends with cocaine. It didn’t take long for us to realise we liked each other and we soon became a couple. After a year of a party lifestyle my own drug use was taking its toll on me. Underweight and suffering from a number of consequences from my lifestyle I started searching for a better way to live. I knew I had to give up on drugs and drink. I told Faz I wanted to stop using drugs and drink and live “a cleaner way of life” and that is when Allah began to guide me. In the Quran Allah says He never changes a person until they change themselves and I really see that is what happened to me, Alhumdulillah. I began to ask Faz about his religion and he was reluctant to tell me as he felt guilty that he was not practicing it himself. So I took a different route and read every book on Islam I could get my hands on. As I read every page I absorbed everything with happiness. This is what I had been looking for. Within a few weeks I had taken my shahada (declaration of faith) and embraced Islam. Faz was overjoyed and he too stopped taking drugs and started reading books about Islam. Within a few weeks we were husband and wife.

The months of marriage were blissful. I studied Islam hard and adopted a lifestyle that was very comfortable for me. I started wearing hijab and attending study circles. For a few weeks Faz came too but it soon became clear that I was leaving Faz behind. No matter how hard I tried to encourage him to join my in studying Islam his heart seemed to lean towards his old lifestyle. He became moody again and started going back out with old friends. In my naivety, I never imagined that he could have started taking drugs again but it was not until two years later that I realised things were much worse than I could have ever imagined. Faz had been taking heroin and crack cocaine and that explained a lot about his behaviour, disappearing acts, weight loss and erratic sleeping patterns. It was like pieces of the jigsaw coming together as I realised what all these different incidents and events actually meant. If I would have known back then, that I would still be telling this story 12 years later and Faz is still struggling with his addiction I would have made a lot of different decisions. But by the decree of Allah, I have stuck it out and been witness to 12 years of push and pull, backwards and forwards, separation, happy times and terrible times. The proverbial roller coaster has taken us on journeys that would take years to tell the story.

So how do I sum up 12 years of living with an addict? I fear the standing on the Day of Judgement when all this will be unpicked. Every decision I made, to stay or go, to kick him out or keep him, every time we fought, every time I swore at him, hit him, kicked him, every time I fell into depression and hurt myself, felt my eeman drop, stayed in bed all day crying. Allah will ask me about all of this and so much more. What will I say to Allah? What will I say to Allah in terms of my parenting? How did I put the kids in danger? Did my mind being on Faz all the time mean I was less of a good Mum as I could have been? Should I have left him years ago and remarried to offer my children a better life? Or just stayed single and been an amazing mum?

When I became Muslim I imagined a life of happiness. I imagined a marriage of solidity whereby me and Faz would be responsible, good Muslims, striving together to worship Allah and better ourselves. I thought we would walk on the Straight Path, hand in hand. But in reality we have dragged ourselves back to the path from time to time, kicked each other off the path, called each other from far distant places and lost each other over and over again. The Straight Path was always there, but we kept losing it either together or as individuals and go through phases like this and then returning to the path. The times when Faz was clean, usually when seeking professional help, showed us that we could be happy and have the marriage that I always wanted as a new bride. Those times would be like a mini paradise for me. Perhaps, it was those times I was living for and what kept me in this relationship for so many years, just holding out for the happy times.

There have been times when I could not see any ‘Faz’ at all. I would look at his face and say “who are you?” then look in the mirror and then say the same to myself. I lost myself in his addiction just as much as he lost himself. Addiction does that to people. You lose a sense of who you are and where you are going and the carers can fall into this themselves. That is what happened to us. And then we projected that on to our children, who as they hit their teens also became lost. What the knew of Islam was not being emulated at home in a consistent way. Addiction destroys families, eating everything in its path.

So here I am twelve years of storms with the odd break of sunshine as the clouds part for a while. I bask in the warmth of that sunshine when those times come. I let down my guards and enjoy the moment for what it is before it passes. And then my heart breaks all over again. The wounds that were beginning to heal tear open again and life becomes our version of normal again. I do not know where to go from here. I fear The Day I will stand before Allah and explain what caused me to stay. I fear what Allah will say. That is the Day when people will point the fingers and say “he led me astray, it was HIS fault” but on that Day there will be no excuses and no one to blame but me. So what will I say?

We aim to help you faciliate your recovery programme with an Islamic ethos in mind. We are made up on a team of professionals including, Addiction Counsellors, Family therapists, Child Play therapists, Medical Doctors, Drug Workers, teachers of Islamic Studies and Muslim brothers and sisters who have been in treatment or are recovering from addictio. We believe alongside your professional help , you can implement Islamic rituals and acts of worship in order to perfect your recovery programmes God-Willing.

Find us on Facebook at The Straight Path To Recovery

Recovery Journey Through The Qur’an

The Book of Allah - The Qur'an is the manual we need to guide us through our recovery from addiction, and is a light that shines the way through life in general. As we read through the Words of Allah we will gain many lessons, advice and signs to reflect upon that will help steer us towards the Path of Allah and help us to keep treading upon The Straight Path to recovery